国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

In the course of the next few days he arranged a little exhibition of his finds, sending out invitations to the Chinese officials. What the private thoughts of these gentlemen may have been on seeing fossil vertebrae, pelvic remains, teeth and eggs I do not know. It is possible that they felt a faint interest in these »dragon's teeth » from a pharmacological point of view, for fossil bones are used by the Chinese as medicine; but presumably they would have been more interested if the silent stones had been clinking gold.

DINNER FOR THE CHINESE OFFICIAIS

On November 25th we gave a dinner for the mandarins. The Governor-General had also been invited, but he had pleaded previous engagements — as the reader may remember, he had not crossed the threshold of his yamen since the 7th of July, when YANG was murdered. We had suggested that the dinner be held inside the yamen, for we had a, for Urumchi, very unusual entertainment to offer our guests in the form of a film, that we thought would amuse the Governor-General. But even this proposal was rejected. For the sake of the lighting we borrowed the house of one Wu, the head of the electric power-station, and in CAiu,soN's skilful hands the performance went off without a hitch.

The Governor of Urumchi, the burgomaster, CH'EN, the Foreign Minister, and YEN, the Minister for Industries, sat full of anticipation before the screen. And these worthy gentlemen were now able to witness the march past of Swedish soldiers, warships rolling in a high sea, aeroplanes sailing over Swedish soil, waterfalls in the north of Sweden, peasant girls tending their cows on the summer-pastures in the highlands of Jämtland and the activity in a sugar-factory.

A Chinese dinner was served after the performance, and before the town-gates closed the guests dispersed.

GOVERNMENT SUBSIDY GRANTED FOR THE EXPEDITION

On November 26th I received a telegram from home to the effect that the Swedish government had granted the application I had made in the summer for a subsidy for the continuation of the expedition. The sum was actually 500,000 Swedish crowns to be paid out in two disbursements. It may be imagined with what delight this piece of news was received by those of us who happened at that moment to be at headquarters. The couriers who were sent out from time to time to members working in the field took the glad news with them. The first courier to be sent off bore letters to NoRIN and BERGMAN. The letters were sewn into the lining of his coat, for Governor-General CHIN'S nervosity had now

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